Carbon dioxide immobilization unit

Abstract

There is provided a carbon dioxide immobilization unit capable of easily immobilizing carbon dioxide in the form of an organic acid or a carbohydrate under a normal environment. An anode and a cathode both having a surface where an oxidoreductase is present are disposed to face each other with a proton conductor in between. Then, when electric power is externally supplied to the carbon dioxide immobilization unit, in the anode, water is decomposed to produce protons, and in the cathode, an organic acid or a carbohydrate is produced from the protons produced in the anode and carbon dioxide. At this time, while a carbon dioxide supply section supplies a high concentration of carbon dioxide to the cathode, oxygen produced in the anode and the organic acid or hydrocarbon produced in the cathode are removed from a reaction system through an oxygen removal section and a product recovery section, respectively.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to a carbon dioxide immobilization unit using an oxidoreductase. More specifically, the invention relates to a carbon dioxide immobilization unit producing an organic acid or a carbohydrate from carbon dioxide.BACKGROUND ART[0002]Biofuel cells using an oxidoreductase as a reaction catalyst have been attracting an attention as next-generation fuel cells with high capacity and high safety, since the biofuel cells effectively extract electrons from glucose, ethanol, and the like which are not usable in fuel cells using a typical industrial catalyst.[0003]FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating an electric power generation principle of a biofuel cell using an enzyme. For example, in the case of a biofuel cell using glucose as a fuel as illustrated in FIG. 5, in an anode 101, glucose is decomposed by an enzyme immobilized on a surface thereof to extract electrons (e−) and to produce protons (H+). On the other hand, in a cathode 10...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The main objective of this patent is to provide a device that can easily fix carbon dioxide in the form of a carbohydrate or organic acid in a normal environment.

Problems solved by technology

However, in the techniques described in the above PTLs 2 and 3, hydrogen used as a reducing agent to produce formic acid from carbon dioxide is not stably present under a normal environment; therefore, there is an issue that extra energy is necessary to obtain hydrogen as a raw material.

Thus, a user-friendly technique of immobilizing carbon dioxide in the form of formic acid or a carbon compound such as carbohydrate has not yet established.

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